The Art of Patience

by Jefferson Rodriguez-Martinez, December 18, 2018

In the culinary industry, everyone loves to say, “A Baking and Pastry student is by nature a perfectionist.” I never understood why everyone in the industry will say this quote over and over again. I love my career because it constantly makes me grow professionally and personally. On the other hand, this quote is true when it comes to developing a dessert, decorating a wedding cake, or when baking bread. Everything in the Baking and Pastry field must be done not only with love but delicacy. The more I keep submerging myself in my career, the more I discover a new me. In fact, I discovered a new virtue throughout this fall quarter.

I never imagined this fall quarter to be so transformative with all the kitchen classes offered at Kendall College. My favorite class was Wedding Cakes because it led me to explore my creativity. Additionally, there were multiple challenges along the way but the sensational part was that I designed my own wedding cake. I always admired Sylvia Weinstock and Maggie Austin as wonderful wedding cake decorators. When Chef mentioned that we would have the opportunity to design our own wedding cake for our practical, this was incredible. I knew that it would be time to inspire myself by looking to my two favorite wedding cake decorators.

As mentioned before, there were multiple challenges throughout the class. The idea of working with fondant and doing gum paste flowers can be overwhelming. If fondant is kneaded too much, it can be overworked. Additionally, if fondant is not covered when working with it, it can harden. On the other hand, when finishing assembling flowers, if you don’t take care of them, they can break. When working with fondant and gum paste, there are multiple challenges, but the solution is to have patience.

My initial goal of creating a wonderful cake was accomplished, yet I made sure to defeat each challenge with patience. As much as I love cakes, it’s important to pipe carefully and make each detail identical and symmetrical to the cake. When there’s no patience but despair, anger, or frustration, hope can be lost. Patience is an important virtue a cake decorator must have in the industry. In order to achieve perfection, you must start by being patient because each virtue complements one another.